Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete Research Articles

Structural Behavior of Nanocoated Oil Palm Shell as Coarse Aggregate in Lightweight Concrete

Oil palm shells (OPS) are mechanical waste that is utilized as coarse aggregates in lightweight concrete. These OPS have shape and strength like conventional aggregates yet the substantial made with these OPS invigorates a limit of 18 MPa. The characteristic strength which must be utilized in structures is seen to be around 25 MPa to 30 MPa. Considering the strength as one of the boundaries for design to be sturdy, the OPS are surface-covered with nanosilane compound. This nanosilane covering goes about as infill on the outside of the aggregates and holds the concrete paste as traditional cement. Operations are permeable in nature; their inner construction has permeable design which makes the aggregates frail. Nanosilane coatings go about as holding between the concrete stage and aggregate stage and hold the substantial solid. In the present examination, mechanical and underlying conduct of nanocovered oil palm shell lightweight concrete is contrasted with that of regular cement. Nanocovered oil palm shell lightweight substantial shows comparative strength as customary cement and decrease in nonsustainable wellspring of energy in oil palm shell lightweight concrete. Supplanting of customary cement with oil palm shell concrete addresses the modern waste which can be utilized for making concrete solid and solid. Morphology and material portrayal of oil palm shell and ordinary aggregates are investigated.

Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Synthetic Polypropylene Fiber-Reinforced Renewable Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete.

Oil palm shell (OPS) is an agricultural solid waste from the extraction process of palm oil. All these wastes from industry pose serious disposal issues for the environment. This research aims to promote the replacement of conventional coarse aggregates with eco-friendly OPS aggregate which offers several advantages, such as being lightweight, renewable, and domestically available. This paper evaluates the mechanical and thermal performances of renewable OPS lightweight concrete (LWC) reinforced with various type of synthetic polypropylene (SPP) fibers. Monofilament polypropylene (MPS) and barchip polypropylene straight (BPS) were added to concrete at different volume fractions (singly and hybrid) of 0%, 0.1%, 0.3% and 0.4%. All specimens were mixed by using a new mixing method with a time saving of up to 14.3% compared to conventional mixing methods. The effects of SPP fibers on the mechanical properties were investigated by compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and residual strength. The strength of the oil palm shell lightweight concrete hybrid 0.4% (OPSLWC–HYB–0.4%) mixture achieved the highest compressive strength of 29 MPa at 28 days. The inclusion of 0.3% of BPS showed a positive outcome with the lowest thermal conductivity value at 0.55 W/m °C. Therefore, the results revealed that incorporation of BPS fiber enhanced the performance of thermal conductivity tests as compared to inclusion of MPS fiber. Hence, renewable OPS LWC was proven to be a highly recommended environmentally friendly aggregate as an alternative solution to replace natural aggregates used in the concrete industry.

Mechanical and durability properties of treated oil palm shell lightweight concrete

In this research study treated oil palm shells are used as coarse aggregate in producing lightweight concrete to examine the behavior of bond and durability properties. Oil palm shells having high absorption capacity, these are treated with silica-hydrogen compound admixture to minimize the absorption rate. These treated oil palm shells are used in making lightweight concrete. Prepared treated oil palm shell lightweight concrete is examined with non-treated oil palm shell lightweight concrete to examine the mechanical and durability behavior. Bond between the reinforcement and binder is examined by pull out test and the results are compared with non-treated oil palm shell concrete. Durability like permeability, sulphate attack is examined and compared. Laboratory experimental shows the use of treated oil palm shell for making lightweight concrete had better results than the non-treated oil palm shell concrete.

Effect of Unground Palm Oil Fuel Ash as Partial Sand Replacement on Compressive Strength of Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete

Concern towards degradation of environment due to increasing use of natural sand in construction industry and dumping of solid wastes from palm oil industry namely palm oil fuel ash and oil palm shell has lead towards the development of environmental friendly concrete. The present study investigates the effect of unground palm oil fuel ash as partial sand replacement towards workability and compressive strength of oil palm shell lightweight aggregate concrete. Two types of mixes were used. Control specimen was prepared using 100% natural sand. Another type of mix were prepared by integrating 5%, 10% and 15% unground palm oil fuel ash by weight of sand. The concrete mixes workability were investigated by conducting slump test in accordance to standard. All specimens were made in form of cubes (150mm x150mm) and water cured up to 28 days. The compressive strength test was carried out in accordance to BS EN12390: 3 at 1, 4, 7 and 28 days. The finding shows that integration of 10% unground palm oil fuel ash contributes to the enhancement of oil palm shell lightweight aggregate concrete properties. Success in using unground POFA as partial sand replacement in concrete production would reduce quantity of ash disposed as waste and save the consumption of natural river sand.

Preliminary Study on Properties of Oil Palm Shell Lightweight Concrete with Cockle Shell as Mixing Ingredient

Environmental pollution caused by the dumping of oil palm shell (OPS) from palm oil mill and cockle shell from cockle trade has initiated early exploration to discover the potential of these waste incorporated in concrete production. The present research investigates the effect of integrating crushed cockle shell as partial fine aggregate replacement on compressive strength and flexural strength of OPS lightweight aggregate concrete. A total of five mixes were prepared. OPS lightweight aggregate concrete containing 100% river sand was used as control specimen. Other mixes were produced by varying the percentage of crushed cockle shell by weight of sand. All specimens were water cured for 28 days before subjecting it to compressive strength and flexural strength. The finding shows the concrete exhibit strength increment when crushed cockle shell is added as partial fine aggregate replacement. Conclusively, crushed cockle shell has the potential to be used as mixing ingredient in OPS lightweight concrete production.

Micro-structural and Interfacial Transition Zone investigation on Oil Palm Shell lightweight concrete.

Oil palm shell (OPS) aggregates can be used as a replacement of coarse aggregate in concrete to produce lightweight concrete. OPS is found to absorb more water compared to normal aggregate. Hence, surface treatment is carried out on OPS and the effect of water cement ratio on strength of concrete is investigated. This paper presents X-ray diffraction analysis carried out for treated and non-treated OPS (NTOPS) aggregate to find the mineralogical characteristics. Microstructural analysis and interfacial transition zone is investigated for treated and NTOPS using digital image processing or digital microscope. The results of investigation is compared with conventional concrete.

Micro-structural and interfacial transition zone investigation on oil palm shell lightweight concrete

Oil palm shell (OPS) aggregates can be used as a replacement of coarse aggregate in concrete to produce lightweight concrete. OPS is found to absorb more water compared to normal aggregate. Hence, surface treatment is carried out on OPS and the effect of water cement ratio on strength of concrete is investigated. This paper presents X-ray diffraction analysis carried out for treated and non-treated OPS (NTOPS) aggregate to find the mineralogical characteristics. Microstructural analysis and interfacial transition zone is investigated for treated and NTOPS using digital image processing or digital microscope. The results of investigation is compared with conventional concrete.

Enhancement of Durability Properties and Drying Shrinkage of Heat-treated Oil Palm Shell Species High-strength Lightweight Concrete

In this study, the effects of heat-treated and non-treated oil palm shell (OPS) species (dura and tenera) are investigated on the slump, density and compressive strength of oil palm shell concrete (OPSC). Two different species of OPS coarse aggregates are subjected to heat treatment at 65 and 130 °C with the duration of 1 h. The results show that the workability of the OPSC increases significantly with an increase in temperature of heat-treated of the tenera OPS aggregates. It is found that the maximum achievable 28-days and 180-days compressive strength is 51 and 54 MPa, respectively. Furthermore, rapid chloride penetration tests (RCPT), porosity measurement and water absorption tests were performance to signify the effects of heat treatment on different OPS species lightweight concrete (LWC). The use of heat-treated OPS LWC induced the advantageous of reducing the permeability and capillary porosity as well as water absorption. The results showed that the ideal of heat treatment method has enhanced the performance of drying shrinkage. Hence, the findings of this study are of primary importance as they revealed that the heat treatment on OPS species LWC can be used as a new environmentally friendly method to enhance the durability properties and drying shrinkage of OPS LWC.

Enhancement of Durability Properties and Drying Shrinkage of Heat-treated Oil Palm Shell Species High-strength Lightweight Concrete

In this study, the effects of heat-treated and non-treated oil palm shell (OPS) species (dura and tenera) are investigated on the slump, density and compressive strength of oil palm shell concrete (OPSC). Two different species of OPS coarse aggregates are subjected to heat treatment at 65 and 130 °C with the duration of 1 h. The results show that the workability of the OPSC increases significantly with an increase in temperature of heat-treated of the tenera OPS aggregates. It is found that the maximum achievable 28-days and 180-days compressive strength is 51 and 54 MPa, respectively. Furthermore, rapid chloride penetration tests (RCPT), porosity measurement and water absorption tests were performance to signify the effects of heat treatment on different OPS species lightweight concrete (LWC). The use of heat-treated OPS LWC induced the advantageous of reducing the permeability and capillary porosity as well as water absorption. The results showed that the ideal of heat treatment method has enhanced the performance of drying shrinkage. Hence, the findings of this study are of primary importance as they revealed that the heat treatment on OPS species LWC can be used as a new environmentally friendly method to enhance the durability properties and drying shrinkage of OPS LWC.

The Study of Oil Palm Shell (OPS) Lightweight Concrete Using Superplasticizer, Silica Fume, and Fly Ash

The concrete technology has been growing significantly since years ago especially in Indonesia’s construction. Therefore, Indonesia needs new innovation of concrete technology to solve the problem for the availability of concrete material. Indonesia is known as the largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) in the world. Oil palm shell (OPS) is one of the solid wastes produced in crude palm oil industry that can be used as concrete materials. This paper presents the experimental results of a research project to produce structural lightweight concrete using oil palm shell (OPS), as a coarse aggregate. This experimental was investigating the effects of adding silica fume, fly ash, and superplasticizer for the compressive strength and flexural strength of the OPS lightweight concrete. It was found that OPS lightweight concrete has compressive strength up to 23.90 MPa in 28-days and flexural strength up to 2.54 MPa in 28-days. This experimental concluded that OPS lightweight concrete has a good potential as a lightweight coarse aggregate and low-cost housing construction in Indonesia.

Quality control of lightweight aggregate concrete based on initial and final water absorption tests

Water absorption test is used to evaluate overall performance of concrete in terms of durability. The water absorption of lightweight concrete might be considerably higher than the conventional concrete due to higher rate of pores in concrete and lightweight aggregate. Oil palm shell is a bio-solid waste in palm oil industry, which could be used as lightweight aggregate in the concrete mixture. The present study aims to measure the initial and final water absorption and compressive strength of oil palm shell lightweight concrete in order to evaluation of quality control and durability performance. Total normal coarse aggregates were substituted with coarse oil palm shell in a high strength concrete mixture. The quality of concrete was then evaluated based on the compressive strength and water absorption rates. The results showed that fully substitution of normal coarse aggregates with oil palm shell significantly reduced the compressive strength. However, this concrete with the 28-day compressive strength of 40 MPa still can be used as structural concrete. The initial and final water absorption test results also showed that this concrete is not considered as a good concrete in terms of durability. Therefore, it is recommended that both compressive strength and waster absorption tests must be performed for quality control of oil palm shell concretes.

High Strength Lightweight Aggregate Concrete using Blended Coarse Lightweight Aggregate Origin from Palm Oil Industry

The benefits of using structural lightweight concrete in construction industry, particularly in high rise buildings, over normal weight concrete are numerous. The main method of producing structural lightweight concrete is the use of lightweight aggregates instead of ordinary aggregates in concrete. Due to the limited resources for natural and artificial lightweight aggregates, the alternative sources for lightweight aggregates should be discovered from industrial wastes. Oil palm shell (OPS) and oil-palm-boiler clinker (OPBC) are two solid wastes from palm oil industry and are available in abundance in tropical regimes. The use of just OPS as coarse lightweight aggregate in concrete mixture has some drawbacks for concrete. The aim of this study was to investigate engineering properties of a lightweight concrete containing both of these aggregates. For this purpose, in this study, 50% (by volume) of OPS was replaced with OPBC in an OPS lightweight concrete. The test results showed that when OPS was substituted with OPBC, significant improvement was observed in the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths. In addition, initial and final water absorption as well as drying shrinkage strain of blended coarse lightweight aggregate concrete were significantly less than OPS concrete.

Properties of metakaolin-blended oil palm shell lightweight concrete

In this paper, the effect of partial replacement of cement with metakaolin (MK) on the strength properties of oil palm shell (OPS) lightweight concrete was investigated. Generally, 5–20% of partial cement replacement with MK enhanced the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths as well as modulus of elasticity of OPS concrete (OPSC). Though the 28 day compressive strength of the OPSC was found in the range of 39–47 MPa, the highest compressive strength was obtained for the mix with 10% replacement of MK. Similar replacement level of MK was found optimum for both the splitting tensile and flexural strengths. In addition, the strength efficiency of OPSC with MK as partial cement replacement was also investigated and it was found that the increase in the replacement level of MK up to 20% resulted in 49% increase in the strength efficiency for the OPSC.

Bond stress-slip relationship of oil palm shell lightweight concrete

This paper presents the investigation on the local bond stress-slip behaviour of lightweight oil palm shell concrete (OPSC). The bond properties of the OPSC specimen with varying reinforcing bar diameters (12 and 16mm), concrete cover sizes (50, 75 and 100mm) and compressive strengths (25 and 35MPa) were explored. A concrete cover size to reinforcing bar diameter (C/D) ratio of more than 4.17 resulted in pull-out failure while the ratio of 3.13 caused splitting cracks in the OPSC specimens. The reinforcing bar diameter, concrete cover size and compressive strength affected the normalized bond strength, provided that the splitting failure occurred in the concrete specimens. The proposed bond model for splitting failure incorporating the C/D ratio used in the closed-form solution for prediction of the serviceability crack width was found to give good estimation of the experimental results obtained from the full-scale beam tests.

Mechanical, toughness, bond and durability-related properties of lightweight concrete reinforced with steel fibres

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the mechanical, toughness, bond and some durability-related properties of oil palm shell lightweight concrete (OPSC) containing up to 1.0 % steel fibres. While the inclusion of up to 1.0 % steel fibres gave enhanced tensile and bond strength as well as toughness to the OPSC, little influence was noticed in the case of the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity of the concrete. When some durability-related properties was investigated, it was found that the OPSC containing 0.5 % steel fibres showed no deterioration of the permeation properties, whereas further increase to 0.75 and 1.0 % steel fibre volume resulted in the increase in the water absorption and sorptivity values. On the other hand, reduction of up to 21 % of the OPSC drying shrinkage could be attained in the presence of up to 1.0 % steel fibres.

A new sustainable composite column using an agricultural solid waste as aggregate

The agricultural industry is a source of many types of solid waste. For instance, oil palm shell (OPS), is a waste from the palm oil industry and is produced in enormous quantities in tropical countries. This waste material is considered to be a major problem in terms of pollution, while, on the other hand, normal concrete needs a large amount of the raw materials as coarse and fine aggregate. Due to the limitations of raw materials, the use of normal aggregate can have a negative effect on the environment. In addition, the high self-weight of raw aggregate in normal concrete is considered to be another disadvantage of this type of concrete for the construction of structural members. This paper presents a novel sustainable composite column by using of lightweight OPS concrete instead of conventional aggregate concrete. Composite columns in the form of concrete filled steel tubes (CFTs) are acknowledged to be a highly efficient group of columns with wide usage in different types of structure.In this study, the axial compressive behaviour of CFT columns constructed with conventional normal weight and OPS lightweight concretes was investigated. In the new composite column, 22% of the total volume of the composite was replaced with waste OPS aggregate. The test results showed that the CFT column containing OPS lightweight concrete had the same ultimate axial load capacity as the CFT column with conventional concrete. This new green composite column is about 15% lighter than a normal CFT column, with significantly higher specific energy absorption, structural efficiency and flexibility.

DURABILITY PERFORMANCE OF OIL PALM SHELL LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE FOR INSULATION BUILDING MATERIAL

The advantage of oil palm shell (OPS) as coarse aggregate in concrete can be extended to insulation concrete capacity. Thus, this paper will explain the durability of oil palm shell lightweight concrete (OPSLC) for insulation concrete capacity in building. Nine mix designs were developed containing high volume of OPS, which is 30, 32 and 34% from total volume of concrete with three different OPS shapes (raw, crushed and partly crushed). The water absorption and drying shrinkage were examined; besides, thermal conductivity testing that was conducted for confirmation as insulation concrete category. The observation of all the specimens lasted one year for durability performance test and 28 days for thermal conductivity value. The highest water absorption value is 43% from previous study that was designed for structural concrete. Higher OPS volume fraction produced higher air void content and caused water loss and increase of the hydration effects on OPSLC shrinkage. It also affected the microstructure conditions, especially specimens that used 34% of OPS volume fraction which show weak interface bond in cement matrix.

Drying shrinkage behaviour of structural lightweight aggregate concrete containing blended oil palm bio-products

Oil palm shell (or palm kernel shell) and oil-palm-boiler clinker are two solid wastes from palm oil industry in tropical region. They can be used as aggregate in concrete mixture. Lightweight aggregate concrete with high strength was successfully produced using oil palm shell as coarse lightweight aggregate. However, lightweight concretes containing oil palm shell with normal and high strengths have relatively high drying shrinkage at early and later ages. This study is an effort to reduce drying shrinkage of oil palm shell lightweight concrete. It was found from previous studies that increasing the volume of oil palm shell in concrete increased its drying shrinkage. Therefore, one method to reduce the drying shrinkage is the reduction of oil palm shell volume by substituting this aggregate with another type of aggregate. For this purpose, comprehensive experimental study was carried out to investigate the effect of partial replacement of oil palm shell with oil-palm-boiler clinker aggregate on the shrinkage behaviour of this type of lightweight concrete. Two sets of concrete mixes were designed in this study. In the first set, oil palm shell was replaced with oil-palm-boiler clinker from 0 to 50% with interval of 10% in oil palm shell concrete with a constant water to cement ratio of 0.36. In the second set, the replacement of oil palm shell with oil-palm-boiler clinker was 30–50% with reduced water to cement ratios from 0.36 to 0.295. The influence of curing conditions on drying shrinkage of concretes was also considered. The test results indicated that partially substitutions of oil palm shell with oil-palm-boiler clinker could significantly reduce long term drying shrinkage of concrete. Contribution of oil-palm-boiler clinker in oil palm shell concrete in the range of 30–50% significantly increased the slump of control oil palm shell concrete. Therefore, it was possible to reduce the water content of these concretes to achieve the same workability of the control mix. Reduction on water content further reduced the drying shrinkage of the concrete. Concrete specimens under 7-day moist curing showed higher drying shrinkage compared to air drying condition.

Prediction of the structural behaviour of oil palm shell lightweight concrete beams

The use of structural lightweight concrete (LWC) has the potential to substantially reduce construction costs as its lower density allows for longer spans, reduced self-weight and a reduction in foundation size. Despite its usefulness, LWC with natural aggregates sees limited use in design due to a lack of design guidelines. This lack of guidance arises primarily due to the highly empirical nature of the design standards in predicting behaviour at all load levels i.e. empirical equations are used at the serviceability limit to predict for flexural rigidities and crack widths as well as at the ultimate limit to predict hinge rotation and moment redistribution. It is thus costly and time-consuming to conduct large scale member testing for a particular type of LWC in order to establish design guidelines. To address this, a generic, mechanics based, segmental moment–rotation (M/θ) approach has been proposed to simulate the flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete at all load levels, in which the only empiricisms required are the definition of fundamental material properties. In this paper, it is shown that the M/θ approach and the subsequent existing closed-form solutions derived based on the approach can predict the full range of flexural behaviours of oil palm shell (OPS) LWC beams such as load–deflection and crack width at all load levels. The successful application of the M/θ approach suggested that the approach can be used as a basis for developing design guidelines for LWC. This was further enforced by the good agreement between the predicted response using the M/θ approach and the published test results for other types of LWC material.

Influence of different types of polypropylene fibre on the mechanical properties of high-strength oil palm shell lightweight concrete

This study aims to investigate the use of various polypropylene (PP) fibres with different aspect ratio and geometry to enhance the mechanical properties of oil palm shell fibre-reinforced lightweight concrete. The volume fractions (Vf) of 0.25%, 0.375% and 0.5% were studied for each fibre. As various PP fibres were added into oil palm shell fibre reinforced concrete, the marginal density reduction was reported. The effectiveness of new types of PP fibres to increase the compressive strength at later ages was more pronounced than at early age. It is found that low volume fractions of polypropylene twisted bundle (PPTB) fibres are more effective in improving the flexural strength of OPS concrete compared to its splitting tensile strength. The average modulus of elasticity (E value) is obtained to be 13.4GPa for all mixes, which is higher than the values reported in previous studies. An increase in the percentage third load compressive strength of 0.5% PPTB fibre of up to 11% was reported. Hence, this new types of PP fibres is a promising alternative solution to compensate lower mechanical properties for lightweight concrete.